1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical staplers for implanting mechanical surgical fasteners into the tissue of a patient, and, in particular, to surgical staplers which are pneumatically powered to fire surgical fasteners into tissue.
2. Background of Related Art
Surgical staplers which implant surgical fasteners into tissue using the force of pressurized gas are known in the art. The majority of these instruments utilize a pressurized air supply which connects to a trigger mechanism by way of an intricate series of hoses and actuators. The trigger mechanism, when depressed, simply releases pressurized gas to implant a fastener into tissue.
Current known devices can typically require 10-60 pounds of manual hand force to clamp tissue and deform surgical fasteners through tissue which, over repeated use, can cause fatigue.
It would be desirable to provide a low cost pneumatic motor or reciprocator which couples to a pressurized gas supply (disposed either internally or externally relative to the surgical stapler) and provides the needed energy required to fire the instrument to form a series of surgical fasteners into and through tissue. It would also be desirable to provide an ergonomically advanced surgical stapler which reduces fatigue during repeated use and provides the surgeon with more tactile feedback during activation of the stapler.